Dear participants of the Prayer gathering for justice and peace!
Brothers and sisters!

The Patron saint of our Mostar – Duvno diocese, Saint Joseph, a just and obedient man, gathered us here today in front of our cathedral. First of all, we congratulate him on this blessed day when he “died a happy death” and when he could hear the words: Come and share the joy of your Lord. We believers venerate him also as the Patron of the Holy Church. Love towards Divine justice and peace, which we invoke by this prayer for our city of Mostar, for our diocese and our whole country has brought us together.
St. Joseph was an obedient man. Obedient to God and to Caesar. By accepting God’s message he received Mary and her child conceived by the Holy Spirit, and thus become head of the Holy Family. By adhering to Caesar’s order, he went from Nazareth to Bethlehem to fulfil the census and took his betrothed Mary with him whose time came to give birth to God#!s only One (Lk 2:1-7). Yet Joseph could never obey king Herod’s ungodly order, which was to kill all of Bethlehem’s male new-borns in order to get rid of the new-born Jesus. Instead, as the caring guardian of Jesus, he swaddled him and took him with his Mother and they fled to Egypt and stayed there until Herod#!s demise (Mt 2: 13-15).
Through St. Joseph’s powerful intercession we beseech God: may he grant his divine justice to the ruler, “may he judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with justice” (Ps 72: 2). We invoke God to mercifully endow this country of his, which he has given us, that its “mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, righteousness” (Ps 72: 3).
We want to be God’s obedient sons and daughters, and to obey his eternal laws with the fear of God. We wish to obey the earthly rulers as well, only if their laws do not go against God’s commandments and if they do not encroach upon the natural rights and responsibilities of peoples and nations. Yet if their worldly laws go against the life of any person, not to speak of any nation, then we are not obliged to obey them.
This is not the voice of extremists, as is oftentimes unreasonably complained. This is the voice of a people “in extremis”, left at the edge of society, and a cry for progress and the victory of righteousness!
Saint Paul cries out and at the same time boasts in the Lord: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (2 Cor 4: 8-10). Therefore we look towards the future full of faith and optimism. Having at the beginning of this prayer service examined our conscience and acknowledged our sins before God, and having repented for them from the bottom of our hearts, asking God’s mercy upon all, we have the right and duty to appeal from this place to the consciences of those who enact this states#! laws for the common good. We thank all those, who are both seriously and responsibly working towards this common good, for the just and peaceful progress of all citizens and nations who live under this Bosnian-Herzegovinian sky.
Injustices with an institutional form. For years now we have been pointing out that there are great deformations in society, imperfect agreements, institutionalised injustices, sinful structures, which are abolishing human rights as well as civil and national liberties in this country. What are sinful structures? Theologians say that: “There is a type of ‘injustice that takes upon an institutionalised form’; as long as it reigns, the very situation cries out for the progress of justice and reforms… It can be asked if one can talk about ‘institutionalised sin’ or ‘sinful structures’, because the biblical term for sin means first of all, an explicit and personal decision of human freedom. There is no doubt though, that by the powerful consequences of sin, contempt and injustice can be enthroned in political and social structures.” So say the theologians. This is precisely what we are talking about and for this reason we pray to God that he may grant us “a heart quick to learn” so that we can discern “between good and evil” (1 Kg 3:9), and this is especially necessary for those who govern states and are responsible to their citizens.
We now present a few examples. Let us look first at our own city.
1) The mayors of Mostar. We will not go far back into history. Here in this city from 1878 till 1945, the mayors of Mostar were in most cases Moslems – thirteen in all and two Serbs. From 1945 to 1990 seven Moslems and six Serbs were Mayor. There were also in truth, three Croats from Catholic families, each of whom stayed more or less a year in office, but only as a “transitional phase” until the representatives of the other two groups agreed upon and nominated their candidates as Mayor.
This was the situation in Mostar where Croats were, at least in a relative majority, up until the arbitrary re-shaping of the municipality in the sixties so that there could be no more Croatian majority. You will say that there were also Moslems who in different censuses identified themselves as Croatian nationals. No one will deny that. But one can ask himself with amazement: how is it that for 112 years, from amongst the ranks of Croatian Catholics, who have always been a major part of the city#!s population, there couldn#!t be a Croat Mayor of Mostar except for three transitional years? Those who have studied this, have also written on this topic. Now I ask you: is it because Croat representatives of Catholic conviction are not capable of serving this city as mayors when it’s their democratic turn, or are there some other non-democratic structures involved, which for more than a hundred years have been preventing such candidates their turn, denying them the city vote and the mayor#!s office? How come they are almost always capable of being vice-mayor but never the mayor? What sort of strange mechanisms are we dealing with here which for an entire century have given the representatives of two national groups a regular rotation of the mayor’s chair, while the representatives of the third group are regularly eliminated? Is there a connection to institutionalised social injustice here, which made itself so powerful over the years that it couldn#!t be removed from this region until democratic changes occurred?
2) Dayton#!s handling of justice. As if such strange practices were not enough, in the nineties a real war broke out with bloody conflicts, territorial conquests, ethnic cleansing, and all kinds of evil. The great world powers watched the war in this country attentively and know beyond a doubt who started the aggression, who demolished hospitals and churches, who killed the innocent and the weak in order to cleanse the whole area of other nations. In November 1995, these powers met in the American town of Dayton with a plan to divide B-H into two territorial entities even though there are three national groups here, which are sovereign, enjoying the same rights and constitutive on the entire territory of the country, regardless of their different percentages of the total population. According to this plan of the world#!s powers, one entity has been allotted to one national group and is even called by its national name, with its national symbols, language, constitution, army, police and parliament. Yet in the other entity, the other two constitutive national groups have been placed together, with one constitution, one parliament and a mechanism that is progressively trimming the identity of the smaller national group. This “package of injustice” was not only offered on the table in Dayton by the world leaders, but also imposed upon the participants for initialising and later on for signing in Paris in December of 1995. And this is called an International Accord. Is this package not an unjust structure in spite of the number of combatants and those constrained to sign? This structure, established in this country as a model of peace and justice, whose designers swear and threaten must be implemented – no matter what, won#!t even produce an imaginary let alone a just peace!
Does this type of arrangement not appear even more unjust for the exact reasons that not only have all the aggression, crimes, rapes, concentration camps and ethnic cleansing been overlooked and forgotten, but hundreds of thousands of forcefully displaced persons are still practically and concretely denied to freely and safely return to their homes, especially in the fertile Bosanska Posavina area, just so that they don#!t touch upon the stability of the Dayton “republic”!
And that all this might be unsettling to the end, from the outset this deformed structure has been referred to by its engineers as the “bible”! The Bible is God#!s book which condemns all injustices of mankind committed against the least significant person, the poorest of the poor, the most miserable widow and condemns all injustices perpetrated against any single or many nations by the powerful of this world!
3) History prior to Dayton. A while back a Croatian diplomat from B-H spoke with a high representative of NATO and explained to him the social status, national history and just aspirations of our people. The representative of NATO responded with something like following: “We are not interested in the history of B-H. We don#!t care about your aspirations, nor your national memories and needs. We are only interested in Dayton. For us, the history of B-H begins with Dayton!” What he said is probably what many in Europe are thinking and writing about us in the mass media. We on the other hand don#!t think this way about them nor ourselves. We were on this soil long before there was any place called Dayton. We go back a long time in history. Not only back to the seventh century as a nation, but also as Christians, through the ruins of the basilica in the area of Cim in Mostar, we go as far back as the fifth century, not to mention the Gospels preached by St. Titus in Roman Dalmatia in the first century (2 Tim 4,10). No one in their right mind could therefore expect us to worship and spread the idolatry of Dayton?!
4) The right to self-defence. Sinful structures are a “Tower of Babel” which do not recognise God, nor His laws, neither mankind nor human rights. One of these representatives in responding to a question put forth by our diplomat: #!Do you think the Croats will be satisfied with this situation?#! responded: “Well, the Croats can always leave B-H!” Is this the message of the representatives of the International community in this country? We cannot believe that the International community came here just to help people leave the country. Who can then in the spirit of justice and morality, deny this nation the right to organise itself defend its identity, rights and freedoms? Who is threatening through the imposition of sanctions and repressive measures that only Croats cannot be a nation with their own democratic institutions? Is the Catholic Church, which is firmly rooted in the Croatian people, also destined to vanish from these areas?
The pre-election laws imposed last year by the Organisation for European Security and Co-operation, which ignored the electoral will of the people, has enhanced this vanishing process. According to the Dayton accord, the Croats have no proper institutional mechanism of safeguarding their interests, not even from any “unrighteous judge” who does not fear God and has no regard for man (Lk 18:1-8). And this same people would now have to battle its brains out, like Sisyphus, for its own rights and freedoms through independent Serb institutions or institutions with a Moslem majority! And which world power so callously denies an entire nation their proper institutions for safe-guarding their human rights and national freedoms?! Is this not a denial of the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of one of the constitutive peoples that wishes to live according to its own proper identity along with the other nations?
It is nonsensical to eliminate the symbols of one nation in their own country, while each and every foreign soldier can freely drive around and give orders to people in B-H while wearing his own national symbols.
5) Agreement. Legal distortions have also entered into other common institutions in which consensus is annulled, that is, agreement, the basic defence mechanism of the vital interests of a people which through its democratic will accepts common norms and laws without which there could be no order nor peace in any country. Yet the people adhere through their legal representatives, not by the argument of unreasonable force, but by the force of reasonable argument. A non-national state in which there exist three nations and in which the larger nations can out-vote the smaller nation in its existential rights and freedoms is an utopia and a contradiction.
Therefore the Catholic bishops of this country whole-heartedly claim that “the decisions of the International Community on the election law, on the method of electing the members of the Presidency, on the role of the Chamber of nations, in effect abolish the rights and equality of the Croatian people in relation to the other two national groups”.
6) Reconstruction and return. Another unrighteous structure is found in the fact that even five years after the international accord, no social nor economic mechanisms have been established which could be effective in all areas of B-H to grant each exiled and displaced person who so wishes, to return to his own home, live a dignified life, supporting his family, practising his faith and participating in the creation and development of his national culture and overall common good. Another irrational structure is also found in the fact that of the billions of dollars allocated for the reconstruction of the country, for the rebuilding of homes, apartments and factories destroyed during the war, very little of this aid can be seen. There has been no major reconstruction nor return of people. Instead, people are desperately leaving the country for good.
Two years ago, the Holy Father said to the bishops: “While pleased with the many signs of a strengthening of peace, I cannot overlook the shadows which cause concern. They regard first of all, the unresolved question of the return of refugees and the unequal treatment of the three constitutive groups of Bosnia-Herzegovina, especially with regard to completely respecting religious and cultural identity”.
7) On the side of justice. Complaints are made that we are on the side of “condemned war criminals” in the Hague. On the contrary, we are on the side of the battle for righteousness and just sentences based upon reliable witnesses, overall proof and taking into consideration all circumstances. As long as there exists a lawful defence of the accused and those suspect, one has the right to be on the side of the defence team, whoever the defendant or suspect might be, as well as the right to pray to God that he enlighten the prosecutors, the accused and the judges so that they may judge not according to political ties but “according to God#!s justice”! We are on God#!s side, that is, the side of justice and truth! We firmly believe that God#!s truth and justice are great and that in the end they shall prevail, even though they might seem slow in arriving!
8) Constant challenges. It is worth openly mentioning that the Croatian National Assembly, as the main national institution, could become a sinful structure if it were to make unjust and dishonest decisions, if it were to become oppressive and not respect each person and the other nations with whom they have to live and work with. The Assembly will not be that type of structure if it is an assembly of reason and conscience, and not a podium for human passion in which the personal reigns over the public, the individual over the common good, the party over the national interests.
Conclusion. Dear believers, we have the duty to lift up our prayers to God the He in his own divine fashion inspire and enlighten those responsible representatives in their duties, so that they may reasonably, seriously and decisively lead the people in the ways of truth and justice, towards the goal of peace and order; for true and lasting peace cannot be anything but “the effect of righteousness” (Is 32:17).
This is why today, before the Patron saint of our diocese, we humbly and hopefully have brought forth some of our problems and concerns. We pray for his intercession before the God of love and righteousness, that he may protect our families, this diocese, all the people and nations of this country!
We firmly believe that God, through the merits of St. Joseph, the just, wise and faithful servant and “by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever” (Eph 3:20-21). Ratko Perić, bishop